In many cases, a pharmacy customer will order a prescription refill in advance of his or her visit to the pharmacy to pick up the refill. In other cases, a prescription for an initial supply may, for example, have already been called in by the customer's doctor. Generally, the customer's order will then be filled, packaged, and stored until the customer visits the pharmacy to pick up the order. Many pharmacies store such an order in a common area along with other customers' orders that have also been placed in advance of those customers' visits to the pharmacy.
Upon arriving at the pharmacy, the customer generally proceeds to a point of sale area, such as a prescription pick-up window, a drive-thru window, etc., and identifies himself or herself to a pharmacy technician or other on-duty employee. The pharmacy technician then locates and retrieves the customer's previously prepared order from the common storage area. In some cases, the pharmacy technician may ask the customer for further verification of his or her identity before the pharmacy technician retrieves the customer's order. Additionally, in some cases, the pharmacy technician and customer may review information about the customer's refill, and/or information about the customer's insurance coverage. The customer may then pay for and receive the refill.
To make the prescription pickup and payment process more convenient for the customer, some pharmacies have implemented express pickup and/or payment services. Express pickup services typically allow a customer to register their identification, insurance information, and/or other applicable information with the pharmacy so this information does not need to be initially provided (but may simply be verified) when the customer picks up the prescription. Express pay services likewise allow a customer to register a form of payment (e.g., a debit or credit card) for prescriptions so payments can be processed before the customer picks up the prescription. Pharmacies often locate the express pickup counter, standard pickup counter and drive-thru pickup locations separate from one another.
Although express pickup and payment procedures and drive-thru options provide more convenience to the customer, these prescription pickup procedures can be further improved upon. First, a customer does not know if his or her prescription is ready until going to the applicable counter and asking pharmacy staff. If the counter already has a line, the customer may need to wait unnecessarily only to be informed that the prescription is not available, and then wait again until the prescription is ready. Second, since the express pickup, standard pickup, and drive-thru locations are generally in separate areas, a customer may go the wrong location or not know where to go to initially pick up the prescription. Third, the type of prescription may prevent the customer from picking up the prescription at the express counter or at the drive-thru and/or the customer might have questions that cannot be addressed at these locations. As a result, keeping both the pharmacy staff and the customer informed of the proper pharmacy pickup location is important and presents several challenges.